Don't be so literal!

Don't be so literal!
Originally uploaded by waɪ.tiː

OK we realise you're not a take-away service, but the antonym of pizza take away is not pizza bring.

What's Ambient about a Sausage Roll?

British anti-jargon campaigners, the Plain English Campaign, were celebrating Monday after forcing  supermarket chain, the CoOp, to change the labelling on a sausage snack which had been described as "ambient".

Campaigners decided to complain about what they described as the "bizarre" title given to the roll after they were contacted by a succession of baffled shoppers.

Ambient means, "existing in the surrounding area" so maybe they were describing the existence of the sausage roll surrounded by flaky pastry. 

What the CLIL?

Here's my rant of the day - They're at it again! CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) involves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a language other than that normally used. What they're calling Plurilingual Education. For example, teaching a science lesson in German in a school in the UK.

It looks as if, yet again, we're experimenting with our children's futures. The latest educational bandwagon to jump on has just arrived.

To me it makes more sense to integrate all the subjects so that math, art, languages, history, science etc know what is being taught in each lesson and incorporate it into their lessons. I've never understood why everything has to be taught separately in its own little bubble anyway. We don't live our lives like that, so why do we teach this way?

If music be the food of learning

A study by the University of the Arts, London, suggests that learning a musical instrument at primary school can boost a child's confidence and learning in other areas. It was said to improve motivation and behaviour, because it is a social activity that engages the child's emotions and self expression, and it can improve the way a child collaborates without any competitive element.

Full story here

Ignorance is not bliss

A hospital paediatrician in Wales has been driven out of her home, after vandals confused her professional title with the word "paedophile". Her house was daubed with graffiti because local yobs don't seem to know the difference between "paedophile" and "paediatrician". It would be funny, if it wasn't so tragic.